Othello baseball advances to crossover game
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldOthello runner Arcenio Martinez (12) beats the throw to the plate as Quincy catcher Cody Kehl sweeps the tag during Tuesday's District 5-6 playoff game at Huskies Field.
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldOthello pitcher takes the flip from first baseman Jay Rodriguez on a play at first in the third inning of Tuesday's District 5-6 playoff game at Huskies Field.
OTHELLO — The No. 5 Othello Huskies baseball team advanced to the crossover game for the first time since 2009 with an 11-6 victory over No. 6 Quincy Tuesday night at Huskie Field.
The Huskies (14-9) will play at Cheney on Saturday and see if they can’t punch their ticket to the 2A state tournament.
“We never gave up. We wanted this one,” said senior Abel Gomez, who struck out eight and scattered four hits in six innings of work. “It’s amazing. I didn’t know I was going to make it this far. I tore an ACL in football and missed the whole wrestling season. I’ve been working my butt off just to play and now we’re playing in the crossover game with a chance to go to state. It’s just amazing.”
Othello senior Arcenio Martinez doubled twice in his first two at-bats and finished 2-for-5. He is just one of six seniors on the team, which is starting to reshape the baseball culture in Othello.
“Knowing Othello hasn’t been to the crossover game since 2009, it sounds amazing they we broke through,” Martinez said. “It’s our dream to go to state and make it Yakima and now we’re one game from getting there.”
The dream would start a little closer to home for the winner of Saturday’s game, which would start the 2A tournament at Johnson-O’Brien Stadium in Ephrata. But first things first, the Huskies had to deal with a red-hot Quincy team, which had won nine of 12 games, including a major upset over No. 3 seed East Valley in the opening round of the District 5-6 tournament.
The Jacks (11-13) took a 2-1 lead into the third, scoring the go-ahead run when Doug Tobin doubled and scored on a single by Marco Cisneros. Othello answered with four runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 5-2 lead. The rally included Martinez’s second double of the day and a single by Gomez.
The game had a couple of defining moments between seniors trying to extend their high school careers. Tobin, who is headed to Wenatchee Valley next fall, stood at the plate with bases loaded and two outs. Gomez leaned over and took his signs from catcher Alfredo Carreno and carefully worked against the Jacks senior, who had singled and doubled in his first two at-bats. Tobin went down two strikes in the count quickly, but worked his way back up to 2-2. The Jacks were one swing from getting back into it.
“We were working to keep the ball low against him, because we knew he was capable of hitting one out,” Carreno said. “We set him up, then got him with a fastball. This is really exciting to be playing on this team and now we’re moving on.”
Othello ran it to 11-2 and had a chance to end the game by the mercy rule, but Quincy just kept slugging. The Jacks’ defense staved off the 10-run margin with a great double play to end the sixth inning. Nathan Delgado fielded the ball at third with the bases loaded, kicked third base for the second out and threw to the plate to Cody Kehl, who tagged the runner to complete the double play and give the Jacks another inning.
Quincy scored four in the top of the seventh, but the Huskies relief staff finally slammed the door.
“We’re super young, but what changed for us this season was the mentality. Once our younger players stopped playing scared, we started winning,” said Kehl, who is headed to Edmonds Community College next fall. “You just got to go for it. Beating East Valley was special.”